“Our ceremony right this moment is to cease, pause, and honor our Seabees who misplaced their lives, so all of us can dwell in a rustic with the liberty all of us cherish,” stated Utilitiesman 2nd Class Brian Torres, NAVFAC EURAFCENT. “In the present day, we bear in mind Seabees who lived by our core values of honor, braveness, and dedication. We cease for just a few moments, so we all the time bear in mind the large worth our brothers and their households have paid so we – and all Individuals – can benefit from the freedom we’ve been given.”
The ceremony memorialized seven NMCB-14 Sailors who paid the last word sacrifice and 35 who had been wounded in 2004 whereas the battalion was serving in Iraq in assist of Operation Iraqi Freedom. All through Iraq and Afghanistan, Seabees constructed bridges, carried out convoy operations, and constructed forward-operating bases alongside Marines, embodying their motto of “We Construct, We Battle.”
“There’s a distinction between being prepared and being ready,” stated retired Senior Chief Development Mechanic Francisco Landrau, occasion coordinator for the ceremony. “We had been prepared, however nothing can put together you for the horrors of warfare. We coped and made sense of actuality by shrugging all of it off, and all the opposite shut calls by laughing and commenting to one another, ‘it was simply not our time, not our day.’ This was our warfare, and that was my struggle. I retired and not put on the uniform. In the present day our battlefield and the face of our enemy has modified and continues to evolve. All of us have our Mission – grasp yours – and always remember our fallen.”
NMCB-14 made historical past as the primary reserve battalion to imagine command from an active-duty battalion since WW2.
“You will need to make time, like right this moment, to step again and bear in mind why we put on this uniform those who have constructed our legacy, and mirror on what we are going to do to hold that legacy ahead,” stated Lt. Cmdr. Matthew Riege, public works officer, NSA Souda Bay. “I’ve one ask for everybody right here right this moment: we determine what every one among us will do to hold ahead the legacy and stick with it for these seven Seabees.”
Seabees from the NAVFAC EURAFCENT laid a wreath because the grasp of ceremonies learn the names of the fallen Sailors:
- Hull Upkeep Technician 2nd Class Jason Dwelley, April 30, 2004, Iraq
- Tools Operator third Class Christopher Dickerson, April 30, 2004, Iraq
- Builder 2nd Class Michael Anderson, Could 2, 2004, Iraq
- Steelworker third Class Ronald Ginther, Could 2, 2004, Iraq
- Builder 2nd Class Robert Jenkins, Could 2, 2004, Iraq
- Development Mechanic 2nd Class Scott McHugh, Could 2, 2004, Iraq
- Tools Operator 2nd Class Hint Dossett, Could 2, 2004, Iraq
“The desert sand has been anointed with the blood of these seven Seabees who volunteered to serve and understood that someday, their service to our nation might value them their lives,” concluded Landrau. “It must be necessary to all of us to memorialize our fallen, in order that we will guarantee, that as time passes, their sacrifices is not going to have been in useless.”
